In Time to Live
by Clare Hope
Summary: Something strange had come through the Rift, piggybacking with some of the earliest time travelers. Something that finds a human host and feeds on the disturbances of time. And where better to do that than in the heart of Torchwood itself? (Contains a bit of whump/h/c, Janto, and overall feels. But it's got some funny bits, too. Now complete!)
1. Chapter 1

_Just for the first chapter, my note is going before the story; this won't happen again but I just wanted to explain a little thing. The first chapter does not contain the Torchwood team, and I'm sorry about that, but I swear they will be here next chapter and the story does not revolve around my OCs at all. They're mostly just there to move the plot along because I wouldn't have a plot without them. I needed to set something up, though, so please...don't be put off by this. Okay! Thanks for reading already, and I really really hope you enjoy this. I've worked for weeks on it and it's finished now, so I won't neglect publishing it. One or two chapters every three days or so is probably going to be how it happens. _

_Prepare for some whump, some feels, some funny moments, plenty of Janto, and a complicated story that just sort of happened. Well, no, I had a bit of help. Anyway...allons-y! I love you. ~Clare_

* * *

_14 November, 2996_

_In Orbit around the Earth_

It was the year 2996. Deep in the heart of a top-secret laboratory that floated in space, a close knit team of four people were trying to calm their nerves.

A petite young woman with light brown hair pulled back into a high ponytail was tapping her fingers in a quick, deliberate pattern onto the sterile white countertop.

"Lakia, would you stop that?!" the other woman in the group, dark-skinned and tall, asked.

Lakia gave a start. She glanced at her fingers. Apparently, she hadn't noticed she was doing it. "Sorry, Sel. Sorry."

"Selenite, don't be too hard on her," a man who was sitting cross-legged on a table murmured. "She's just nervous."

"We're all nervous," Selenite retorted. "Doesn't mean we all need to make some infernal din with our fingernails!"

The last person in the room, a red-haired man leaning up against the same table the other man was sitting on top of, sighed. "She wasn't being that loud," he said quietly.

Lakia was staring down at the floor ashamedly. "Sorry!"

"Don't worry about it," the first man told her gently. "Believe me, I'd be doing something like that too, if I wasn't so exhausted. Flicker and I didn't get any sleep last night." The second man nodded his affirmation.

"Why didn't you sleep?" Selenite said.

"Too anxious," Flicker told her. "I tried, but I had nightmares."

"What about?" Lakia said.

Flicker shook his head. "I can't remember exactly. Midde said I said something before I woke up, but…"

Midde, the other man, cut in. "He said, 'Oh, God, they're changing.'"

Selenite frowned. "Well, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Flicker glared at her defensively. "It was just a dream!" Midde reached over from his position on top of the table and put his hand on Flicker's shoulder.

"Hey...calm down," he said. Flicker muttered something. "Yeah, I know."

Just then, the door opened. All four people jumped slightly. A woman in a white lab coat walked in, followed by a older man wearing a professional looking suit and tie.

"Are we ready?" the man demanded.

The four, all at once, replied, "Not really."

"Just think, though!" he continued as if they had not spoken. "You are MAKING HISTORY!"

"Well, we're breaking it," Selenite muttered sarcastically. "But, you know, same thing."

Midde rolled his eyes. "Oh, be more dramatic, why don't you?"

"Okay. Here's drama," Selenite responded quickly. "_We're all going to die._"

The woman in the lab coat cleared her throat. "Might I remind you all that you signed up for this? You volunteered. And the time for backing out is over. Everything has been prepared for. The device is in place. If you would just follow Dr. Rosner and I…"

Selenite crossed her arms and stalked off after the two scientists. Lakia followed more slowly, while Midde slipped off the table and walked out just behind the two women with Flicker. They walked for a while in silence before reaching their destination: Lab Number 1.

They were quickly ushered inside. A smooth silver capsule was placed in the center of the large room, a long desktop full of computer monitors and complicated buttons placed along the length of one wall. They were told exactly how to settle themselves inside the capsule, and soon the four were sitting inside; Selenite and Lakia in front, Flicker and Midde in back.

The door slid shut, sealing without a trace of a seam. It was completely dark inside the capsule. The voice of the man, Dr. Rosner, came through a speaker somewhere in the tiny ship. "Good luck, and God be with you."

"Can we please have light?" Flicker whimpered. A soft silver glow began to emanate from the curved ceiling, and he sighed gratefully. "Thank…"

A mechanical voice interrupted. "Departure will begin in 10 seconds… 9… 8… 7… 6…"

Lakia was trembling. "_We're going to be ripped apart,_" she mouthed at Selenite, whose sarcastic and brusque exterior seemed gone for the moment as she reached over and grabbed Lakia's hand for support.

"...3… 2… 1… 0."

A sharp jolt threw all four passengers to the left; Lakia crashed into Selenite, who crashed into the wall, and Midde caught himself with his hand and braced Flicker with the other. "Whoa!" he cried as they were violently tossed the other way. Then the ship started to vibrate. Flicker felt as if his teeth were going to chatter so hard he would bite his own tongue off. Somehow, his hand found Midde's and he held on tightly.

The silver light changed. It pulsed blue, then red, then settled into a blinding white, flashing between brightness and pure black. Flicker looked ahead into the front row of seats, at Selenite, who had just twisted around to face them. The light disappeared, and reappeared, and Flicker screamed when his eyes readjusted.

Something was happening to her face.

Flicker suddenly was terrified as he saw her skin turn transparent, and her skull glow underneath, glow with a terrible, terrible green light. "They're changing!" he yelled. "Oh, God, they're changing!"


	2. Chapter 2

_14 November, 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

Captain Jack Harkness flicked his eyes up as he heard someone approaching towards the door of his office. He smiled when he saw who it was. "Hey, Ianto," he greeted.

"Jack, there's something really weird going on with the Rift," Ianto told him brusquely. "You need to see this."

Jack sprang to his feet immediately. "Show me." He and Ianto hurried out to the main room in the Hub, where the Rift monitors were located.

Gwen Cooper was waiting there for them. "Look, look, look," she said frantically, jabbing a finger at the screen. "I have _never_ seen reading like this, Jack, they're going everywhere, off the charts!"

Jack shouldered her out of the way, squinting at the readings. "What the hell…?" he said, bewildered.

"Exactly," Ianto replied. "It just started doing that, less than a minute ago. It doesn't make any sense."

"No...it doesn't," agreed Jack. Suddenly, there was an enormous spike of energy, and an alarm sounded as a tiny explosion caused a puff of sparks and an immense amount smoke to emit from one of the devices scattered around the desk that used to belong to Toshiko Sato. "Whoa!" Jack shouted, as he, Ianto, and Gwen all jumped backwards.

"What the _hell?_" Gwen cried. Then she started to cough. The smoke was starting to fill the air around them.

Ianto covered his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his suit jacket. "Jack, I can't…" he started. Then he doubled over, choking.

Jack was coughing, too, but he managed to grab both of their arms and pull them towards the exit. "Come on, come on, we have to get out!" he cried.

Eyes watering, they managed to get outside. It was nighttime, and it was freezing. No one else was in Cardiff Square. Ianto and Gwen collapsed to the stone and concrete ground, coughing and gasping.

"_What_," Jack started, his voice raspy. "_Was. _THAT?"

Ianto shook his head wordlessly.

"No...idea," Gwen managed. "We...should...try to...clear...the smoke...out."

Ianto was shakily regaining his breath. "The fans...will already...be starting up. We don't need to...worry about that. We just wait 'til it's cleared out to go back inside."

"Jack, weren't those monitors made to withstand practically _anything_?" Gwen demanded.

Jack nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, they were."

"So what happened?" persisted Gwen.

"We'll figure it out," Jack said firmly. "We'll figure it all out."

* * *

_See! I told you they'd be here! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Please review if you did! Or didn't, I like constructive criticism too. Love you all! ~Clare_


	3. Chapter 3

_15 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

It took over three hours for the smoke to clear enough so that it was safe to re-enter the Hub, and by that time it was past midnight. Jack was examining the broken equipment, and Gwen and Ianto were sitting in some desk chairs behind him, waiting. "Time travel," Jack whispered.

"What was that?" Gwen said.

"Time travel," Jack repeated more loudly.

Ianto leaned forward. "What about time travel?"

"That's what caused this," Jack told them.

"But there've been time travellers here before, Jack," Gwen remarked. "This has never happened."

"Yeah...I know. But see, time travel is a tricky thing. It can cause nasty anomalies and time ripples or tears in spacetime if it isn't done properly. I remember...this one time, a really, really long time ago. It was, well. It was when I was with the Doctor. There were time travellers from after the Second Dark Age setting themselves up in prehistoric times, observing Neanderthals and early humans coexisting." Jack smiled. "Well, a lot of stuff happened...but the important thing is, the time travellers were using the most rudimentary form of travel. It was awful, disgusting. It punched holes in the spacetime continuum, in the very fabric of the universe. It was called a 'dirty rip engine.'" *

Ianto sputtered. "Are you joking?"

"No!" Jack protested. "I swear, that's what they were called."

Ianto raised his eyebrows.

"I swear!"

"Yes, alright, enough, boys," Gwen interrupted. "Jack, keep going."

"Thank you. Anyway, one of the Neanderthals got accidentally zapped into 2005, Bromley. His name was Das."

"You met him?" Gwen inquired, interestedly.

Jack laughed. "Oh, I did more than just meet him. I got stuck taking care of him in London for three months."

Ianto frowned. "Hang on, why didn't the Doctor just take him back to his own time?"

Jack tapped the side of his nose. "Exactly. See, the Doctor tried, but Das was affected by the first time he had time travelled. He started glowing green, dissolving. We had to reverse really quickly, or he would have died because of the time ripples."

Ianto nodded slowly. "Okay...but how does that affect this?"

"Well," Jack continued. "This was the second wave of time travel technology. It was developed after the collapse of the Internet and everything technological, just when the world was starting to put itself back together. It took them 10,000 years, but it happened. And _this_…." He pointed at the screen. "Is not from that time."

"So...what was the point of your story again?" Gwen asked, confused.

Jack sighed, as if frustrated that his team wasn't understanding. "That means that this, since it is an extremely vulgar form of time travel and it _wasn't_ from the second wave of that sort of technology…" He paused, waiting for one of them to understand. Then he rolled his eyes. "Honestly, sometimes it's like I'm the only one in the room. It _means..._That it must have been from the first."

"Oh!" Ianto exclaimed, and Jack looked over at him excitedly. Then Ianto's knowing expression disappeared. "Actually, we've still no idea why that's significant."

Jack laughed. "Don't you two know your history?"

Gwen protested, "It's not history for us, Jack! It's our future."

"That's no excuse!" Jack said, mock-seriously.

"Ohhhkay," Ianto interrupted. "Jack, please just explain. No more games."

"Aw, where's the fun in that?" Jack pouted. "Playing games is the best way to make work more interesting. Well, games and-"

"Focus..." Ianto reminded.

Jack cleared his throat. "Right. Sorry. Um...where was I?"

"First wave of time travel technology," Gwen said immediately.

"Right. So, it was all ancient history for me when I was in school, but we heard stories about the first time travellers. It was two thousand years ago: well, a thousand years from now, really. Their devices were purely experimental, and from what we understood, they were awful. They attempted to find the Vortex, but only succeeded in piggybacking through Rifts. Or so we assumed. They just...disappeared. Some people believed they had been disintegrated, cast into atoms because of inadequate coordinates and teleportation tech. And so we studied them, learnt from their mistakes. We thought they all had died immediately, of course. But now…" Jack looked up from the screen and gazed excitedly at both of his team members. "What if we were wrong? What if some of them survived? What if they landed _here_?"

Ianto couldn't help being affected by Jack's enthusiasm, and a smile was spreading across his face. "All right!" he said. "So, where do we start?"

Jack turned back to the computer. "We start…" he began, "by finding whatever hopped through the Rift."

* * *

_*So, this actually happened. It was in the Doctor Who novel by Gareth Roberts called Only Human. It's quite amazing...and if you're interested...Jack causes an, ahem, interesting distraction. It's quite funny, too. So it hardly had a place in my story but I really wanted it to stay. _

_Thanks for reading! Please review. DFTBA, I love you! ~Clare_


	4. Chapter 4

_15 November 2008_

_In A Valley Outside of Cardiff, Wales_

A small silver capsule sat in the middle of a ring of fire. The grass around it was scorched into a perfect circle, slowly spreading outwards until it was quenched by the cold night air. Seemingly unaffected by the heat of the flames, the tiny ship stayed perfectly still. But something inside it...something _moved._

Something that curled up and stretched and curled up again. Something that was rejoiced to have found such a wonderful meal. Something that stirred inside of its hosts hungrily, sensing that there was more to come.

* * *

_Have I interested you yet? If not...please stick around. Things get more interesting in the next chapter. Thanks for reading! DFTBA, I love you!_

_~Clare_


	5. Chapter 5

_15 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

"Ah! Yes! I've got it, I've got it!" Gwen shouted. "I've found its position, Jack, Ianto, look!"

Jack spun around from his computer screen. "Ha! Yes! Great job, Gwen!"

Ianto hurried over. "Where is it?" he asked interestedly.

Gwen was hitting a few more keys on the keyboard. "It's, hang on, I'm printing directions, in a valley among the roads leading from Cardiff to Llantrisant."

Jack grinned. "The beautiful Welsh countryside!"

"Oh, God, I hope it's not like last time," Ianto muttered.

"It won't be," Jack said confidently. "C'mon gang! We're off, like ...like a thundering herd of turtles!"

Ianto and Gwen glanced at each other and seemed to agree on something silently before turning back to him and directing withering glares towards him. "Never, ever say that again," they said in unison.

"Really? I thought it was catchy. No? All right. Fine." Jack pouted. "Well, let's go, anyway." He grabbed his coat from where it had been hanging over the back of a chair and swept it on. He strode over to the rolling door with his team close behind him.

The drive probably should have taken a lot longer than it did, but Jack was a… ahem. Well, he was a _reckless_ driver, to say the least. After a particularly painful sharp turn, Ianto felt he had to ask. "Jack, did you ever _actually_ take a driving test?"

"Umm...fairly?" Jack checked.

Gwen, in the backseat, raised her eyebrows. "Yes!" she answered for Ianto.

Jack thought for a second. "No." He proved his point by taking another extremely sharp turn at a dangerous speed and practically took the SUV up onto two wheels.

Ianto winced. "Thought as much."

"Why? What's wrong with my driving?"

"Basically everything," Ianto told him bluntly. Then he yelped as Jack slammed hard on the brakes. "Ah! Jack! You did that on purpose."

Jack looked at him innocently as he started the car moving again. "There was a squirrel in the road," he defended.

"Sure there was," Gwen muttered.

"Out of pure curiosity, Jack, did you ever take a driving test _unfairly_?"

Jack laughed. "Oh yeah. The instructor was-"

"Jack. Stop. I don't...I don't even want to know. Just stop," Gwen called quickly.

"Tell you later, Ianto?" Jack said smoothly.

Ianto rolled his eyes up to the roof of the SUV and let them stay there. "Please, don't. I rescind my question." He changed the subject quickly. "Gwen, how much further?"

"Not too far," Gwen replied. "Only a couple more miles until we have to start out on foot."

They soon found a place in the road to pull the SUV over where it wouldn't be in the way of anyone who happened to be passing by. While they were unpacking their equipment (because one can never be sure what one will need…), Jack paused. He sniffed the air. "Can you smell that?" he asked.

Gwen and Ianto followed suit. "Yeah, it's like something's burning," Gwen responded. "What d'you suppose that is?"

Jack walked over to the other side of the road. He looked out across the valley that dipped down several meters in a steep slope before flattening out. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe...that." He pointed. Ianto and Gwen jogged over. Their eyes widened.

"What the hell is that?" asked Gwen blankly.

Ianto blinked. In the white light of the moon, a huge, charred circle of grass could be seen in the distance, right in the center of the valley. At the very center of that circle, though, sat a perfectly smooth silver spaceship, untouched by the fire that seemed to have ravaged the field around it.

"Crop circle, much?" Jack said. He sounded delighted. "Come on!" He started running across the grass towards it.

"Whoa! Whoa, Jack, hey! Slow down!" Ianto shouted. Jack stopped and turned around.

"What're you playing at, Jack?" Gwen scolded. "You're not even going to scan it first?"

Jack tilted his head to the side. "Now that you mention it, that is a good idea." He pulled a small device out of his coat pocket and pressed a button on it. It made a whirring noise and a light on it flashed red.

"That's never good," Gwen remarked.

Jack frowned. "Huh."

"What is it?" Ianto said, dreading the answer.

"Not sure. I've never seen anything like it before," Jack responded.

Gwen sighed. "It just keeps getting better, doesn't it?"

"But there's something alive inside of it," Jack added. "The time travelers might have made it!" He took a couple of steps towards the ship. "Coming?" he asked.

Ianto followed him cautiously. Gwen was right behind them. The burnt grass made a strange crunching sound beneath their feet. Ianto reflected for one moment on how he had never heard a sound quite like that before. Then the ship exploded.

"MOVE!" Jack barely had time to shout, and threw himself in front of his team before the world went black.

* * *

_*ducks for cover* Sorry! Don't kill me for the cliffie. Everything speeds up from here on out. Thanks for reading! Love you! DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	6. Chapter 6

_15 November, 2008_

_In A Valley Outside of Cardiff, Wales_

Jack gasped, the harsh intake of air feeling like sand pouring down his throat. He rolled over onto his stomach, coughing. He felt bare, burnt earth underneath him, all of the grass gone. The sky was just beginning to turn the faintest shades of pink and orange signalling sunrise. The captain remembered everything that had happened before he had died… "Ianto!" he shouted suddenly. "Gwen!" He pushed himself into a more upright position, looking around desperately.

He immediately spotted a single limp form a few meters away from him. "Gwen!" he called out, covering the distance between them quickly. He lifted her partially off the ground. She was still. "No, no-no-no-no-no," he murmured. "Gwen! Gwen, please, wake up, we can't lose you too." He felt for a pulse in her neck and breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness. Gwen, hey," he continued, patting her face gently. "Wake up, c'mon, wake up."

Gwen let out a small sigh. Her eyelids fluttered.

"That's it," Jack said, encouragingly. "You've got to wake up." He looked around again. No one else was there.

"...Jack…" she whispered.

"Right here, come on, you've gotta wake up, please, I don't know what happened to Ianto, I don't see him anywhere, please wake up, Gwen," Jack begged.

Gwen coughed slightly and opened her eyes. "What...happened?"

"There was an explosion. Remember the silver timeship?" Jack asked, relieved.

"Sort of…"

"It exploded, Gwen. I tried to cover you two, of course, but…"

The former police-woman sat up quickly. Probably too quickly, because she instantly closed her eyes and swayed as if dizzy. "Uhhhh…" she muttered.

"You alright?" Jack checked quickly.

Gwen opened her eyes again. "Yeah, fine. Hang on, where's Ianto?"

Jack grimaced. "I don't know. He's not here."

"I can see that!"

"Shh, we'll find him. He's alright."

Gwen tried to stand up, and managed it shakily. Jack stood up, too, wincing at how the newly re-forming muscles in his body weren't completely done knitting back together. "How d'you know that?" she snapped. "How can you be sure he wasn't blown to bits?!"

"Because I know," Jack told her calmly, though inwardly he was panicking at the thought of losing the young man. "Gwen, I'd know."

Gwen's expression softened. "Of course you would, love."

Jack gave her a strained smile. "Come on, then, we've got searching to do."

* * *

_So yeah. They don't know where Ianto is. But I do! And you will too, just keep holding on for the next chapter. I love you forever! DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	7. Chapter 7

_15 November 2008_

_In An Old, Abandoned Building in a Spot of Woods outside Cardiff, Wales_

Where was the light coming from? Ianto opened his eyes slowly. He was enclosed between four wooden walls, and there were no windows. So where was the light coming from? Also, how did he get here? Hadn't there been an explosion? He sat up, groaning.

"Jack?" he called softly, wondering if the captain had brought him here after the explosion. "Gwen? Is anyone there?" He stood up. There was a door in the far wall, and the rest of the room was completely bare.

Wincing, he touched the back of his head gingerly. When he brought his fingers back around, the tips were colored with blood. "Oh, damn," he muttered. He took a couple of steps towards the door when it opened suddenly.

A tall, dark skinned woman stood in the doorway. She spoke, and though Ianto understood her perfectly, he got the feeling that she wasn't speaking English. Her voice wasn't...quite human. "Has it been prepared?" She was not speaking to Ianto.

Ianto looked at her, bewildered. "Hello? Who are you and, er, who are you talking to?"

The woman snapped her head towards Ianto. He recoiled slightly as her eyes flashed bright green for a split second. "_You_ will be silent."

Indignation replaced fear in Ianto for a second. "Pardon?" he snapped.

All of a sudden, another person walked into view. "We are nearly through preparing it," he said in the same strange tone as the woman. He was small, with light red hair.

"Preparing what?" Ianto demanded. This whole situation was getting a little too strange. "Where am I?"

"It does not matter, for soon you will be no more," the dark-skinned woman told him, speaking directly towards him for the first time.

Ianto gave a weary sigh, flicking his eyes up to the ceiling. "Why am I not surprised," he muttered. "This is where I'm supposed to do the whole 'reasoning talk' isn't it?"

"We are not to be reasoned with," the man said.

"Of course you aren't," Ianto agreed sarcastically.

Another man's voice came from outside. "I have prepared the former host. Bring the new host. Quickly, it won't last long."

Ianto scrunched up his face in confusion. "What the hell? Hey!" he added crossly as he was seized roughly by the two people in the room and led outside. It was very early morning, and they had just come out of a run-down wooden building into a small stand of trees. Ianto had a moment to observe this before he noticed a man standing over something on the ground. His eyes widened as he saw the body of a young woman, small, with pale brown hair. It was singed but intact. Perhaps she had been caught in the explosion, too? But what had they meant by 'hosts'?

The man standing over the body had a small pen knife in his hand. He knelt down and stabbed downwards, slicing the dead woman's chest open. Ianto cried out, struggling to get away from the grip of the other two as if in reflex. "What are-"

Then a burst of pale green gas exploded from the cut in the woman's chest. Ianto nearly screamed as it rushed towards him as if it had a life of its own.

But his scream was silenced as the gas enveloped him, swirling for a second before shrinking inwards rapidly and disappearing. Ianto stumbled, his face cast downwards. Then he looked up, and his grey-blue eyes flashed a smoky green.

* * *

_Ooh...What just happened? Love you!_

_~Clare_


	8. Chapter 8

_15 November 2008_

_In A Valley Outside of Cardiff, Wales_

A very distant scream echoed in Jack's ears. He looked up quickly. "Gwen!" he called. "Did you hear that?"

Gwen, searching through a grove of trees not too far from Jack, poked her head out from behind an elm. "No, what was it, love?"

Jack frowned. "It's gone now. But I could have sworn I heard a scream. It sounded like Ianto."

Gwen hurried over to him. "Where did it come from?" she inquired.

"Um…." Jack closed his eyes. "That way," he said, pointing in the direction he had thought the scream came from.

"Well, let's go see, then," Gwen encouraged.

Jack nodded, and together they headed quickly along the scrub-land and valleys dotted with small stands of trees. "Ianto?" they started to call. "Ianto, are you there? Where are you? Ianto!"

"I'm going to check over there," Gwen said, pointing to another little grove of trees. "Looks like there's a little building, or something."

"What would he be doing in there?" Jack said, incredulously. "Oh, all right. Go check." She walked away and disappeared into the trees. Then, Jack heard a scream. He started running. "Gwen! What happened?" he shouted. Then he saw her, looking down at something on the ground. Before he got a good look, his heart dropped, thinking it was Ianto. But as he got closer, he realized that it was the body of a young woman he had never seen before.

Gwen was gazing at it, horrified. The woman's face, arms, and clothing were burned in places, and her chest had a deep gash through it. Her eyes would have been open, but they had been burnt out, leaving ashy pits in their place. "Jack, it's awful!" she cried. Jack reached for her arm gently, unable to tear his eyes away from the terrible sight.

"It's okay, don't look at it," he said automatically. "C'mon, you've seen worse."

Gwen nodded. "Yeah…" But she continued to stare at the body in horror.

There came a rustling sound from behind them. Instinctively, they both whirled around, reaching for their guns, drawing them, and aiming them. They were facing four people; a dark-skinned young woman, a red-headed young man, a dark haired man who was taller than the others, and...Ianto.

Ianto had a gun to his head, held there by the woman.

* * *

_Cliffie again, sorry. There might continue to be several of those. One genre is "Suspense", after all, so...Also there will be more of the second genre in a couple more chapters. Thanks for sticking around! Love you all! DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	9. Chapter 9

_15 November 2008_

_Near An Old, Abandoned Building in a Spot of Woods Outside Cardiff, Wales_

"Ianto!" Jack cried. Gwen gasped.

The taller man opened his mouth, and it was not a human's voice that came out. "You are the ones who control the energy of time."

At a glance at Jack's face, Gwen realized that he wasn't going to be much help in this situation. "Jack," she murmured. "I'll handle this." She stepped forward slightly. "Ianto, are you alright?"

Ianto nodded.

"Okay," Gwen said calmly. "I'm going to put my gun down. Will you do the same?" she addressed the young woman.

The young woman lowered her gun, but did not place it on the ground. Gwen did the same. She glared at Jack for a second until he did, too.

"That's it," Gwen said. "Now, what were you saying?"

"You control the time energy."

"We might do something of the sort," responded Gwen carefully. "What is it you want?"

"We want it," the redhead said.

"You want the time energy?" Gwen mirrored. She had been trained in the police of what to do in this kind of situation.

"We want to destroy it."

"And why would you want to do that?" the former police woman inquired.

"Because we are hungry."

"So…" Gwen thought desperately. "Um...you, er, feed off ruined time energy? Is that it?"

The woman nodded. "It hurts here. The time, the Rift, it is too controlled. You must make it compatible!"

"And we've got to do as you say because you've got Ianto, yeah?" Gwen checked. "Cos, let me tell you, sweetheart. That isn't going to happen."

The woman's gun clicked. "Than we kill him, and the one you have such sentiment for will be gone." Ianto flinched slightly at the noise.

"Never." That was Jack. Then there was a gunshot. A hole appeared in the woman's forehead. She dropped to the ground. Before the other two had a chance to react, Ianto rushed over to Jack and Gwen.

"You okay?" Jack asked quickly.

"Yeah."

"Good." He shot again. This time, the bullet hit the taller man, who also collapsed. The redhead was gone before Jack could fire off a third. "Damn it!" he swore. He turned to Ianto. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine!" Ianto told him.

Suddenly, Gwen let out a gasp. "Jack, what the hell…" she began, slowly, terrified. Jack whirled around. The two bodies on the ground began leaking green smoke from the bullet holes in their foreheads.

"Back, back, back!" Jack warned, pushing his team behind him. The gas coalesced into small clusters before bursting apart, dissipating into the air and leaving no trace behind.

"Right," Jack said, sounding thoroughly spooked. "Let's go, shall we?"

* * *

_Points to you if you can tell me what the name of the last time traveler who hasn't been killed yet! Also...yes, Ianto's being a bit abrupt and not himself. Wonder if that has anything to do with what happened two chapters ago...? And when will Jack and Gwen notice? Stay tuned. Thanks for reading! DFTBA, I love you!_

_~Clare_


	10. Chapter 10

_15 November 2008_

_Cardiff, Wales_

The drive back to the Hub had been nearly silent. The only conversation was started by Jack. "Ianto, what happened?"

"Hmm?"

"You know exactly what I meant."

"Oh." Ianto hesitated. "I woke up in that little shack, then those three made me follow them and the woman held a gun to my head. Then you and Gwen appeared."

"Why did you scream?" Jack asked.

"I didn't."

Jack looked at him searchingly. Ianto looked back at him blankly. "Okay," Jack said. He let the matter go for now, but he knew that something was wrong. Ianto didn't just lie to him.

They stood at the entrance of the Hub. Ianto froze. "Ianto…?" Jack said quietly. Ianto was trembling. "What's up?"

"I'm _fine_," snapped Ianto. He stepped inside the Hub, but immediately let out a piercing scream, dropping to one knee. Jack grabbed him under the arms and hauled him backwards, then yanked him to his feet and thrust him into the wall, pinning him there. The young man's eyes glowed with a sickly green.

"_What did you do to him?!_" Jack hissed.

"I...am...not...Ianto...Jones!" he gasped in reply. The inhuman quality of the time travelers' voices suddenly became apparent in his.

Gwen stared wide eyed. "Jack!"

"Gwen, go into the Hub and bring back the all-species sedative," Jack instructed. "Now!" Gwen ran inside. "Obviously," Jack continued. "I didn't ask who you were. I asked WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?"

"This body is my host!" the thing possessing Ianto spit.

"Is Ianto still alive?" demanded the captain harshly.

"Yes. But you cannot rid him of me without killing him, too," the thing threatened.

Jack laughed mirthlessly. "We'll see about that." At that moment, Gwen came rushing back out with a syringe in her hand. Jack snatched it without looking and emptied the contents into Ianto's arm, who collapsed instantly, his eyelids coming down to hide the hideous, unnatural green. Jack caught him, lifting him up effortlessly.

"What the hell was that, Jack?!" Gwen exclaimed.

"One of those green smoke things," Jack told her. "They get inside people, possess them. One of them got into Ianto." He shifted the young man's weight in his arms to make him easier to carry. "I knew something was off. I knew it." He shook his head. "We can't take him into the Hub."

"What? Why not?"

"The time energy would rip the creature inside him apart. It started to, as soon as he stepped over the threshold."

"Well," Gwen said, "wouldn't that be good? Would that get rid of it?"

"It would rip Ianto apart, too," Jack corrected her unhappily. "I'm taking him to his flat."

"Have you got a key?" Gwen asked, confused.

Jack just looked at her. She sort of blushed as she realized that her question didn't really need an answer. "Stay here," Jack told her. "I'll call you when I get there. I'm going to need you to do a few things. I think I might be able to get rid of the creature without hurting Ianto. Well...without killing him."

Gwen nodded determinedly. "Just tell me what to do."

* * *

_Nooo! Ianto! What's Jack got in mind, hey? Thanks for reading! Reviews make me love you even more, hint hint. DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	11. Chapter 11

_15 November 2008_

_In A Flat in Cardiff, Wales_

Jack laid the young man's limp figure down onto the bed with a sigh of relief. "There you are." He pulled his cell phone out of his coat pocket and pressed a button quickly. "Gwen. Here's what you need to do. I'm going to go through it as you do it; don't ask me why, and do exactly as I ask."

Three hours later… "Okay, that's done," Gwen said. "What's next?"

"That's it," Jack told her. "You're done. Wait, actually, one more thing. Go to Tosh's computer. Open up this program." Jack gave her the name and password to the program. "Read what it says."

Gwen did so.

"You're done," Jack affirmed. "You did it."

"Yeah...What exactly did I do?" Gwen asked.

Jack explained. "You've turned the Rift Manipulator so the energy coming into the Hub is less concentrated and less pure, but then directed that energy into one of the holding cells in the vaults, (that's what the little machine I've had you place over the vents in the ceiling does) and the rest of the Hub's energy levels are just like the outside. If I've calculated correctly, once we place Ianto into that cell, it should cause the molecules of the creature to diffuse so that they'll be able to escape through a tiny cut on Ianto's skin. _Without_ killing him."

"If it works, you're a genius."

"Of course I am," Jack agreed. "And if it doesn't work, I don't think I'll be able to live with myself, which in my case is a very unfortunate fate. I'll see you in ten minutes." He hung up, not allowing Gwen the chance to come up with something to respond to that statement. He sighed, looking sorrowfully at the limp Ianto, lying only a foot away on the bed that Jack sat on the edge of.

The captain reached out and touched Ianto's arm. He stood up and lifted the young man up into his arms again. "Come on. You're gonna be alright soon." Ianto didn't stir.

* * *

_So obligatory random sciency thing that seems to happen in almost all of my fics. Hope it's at least plausible. Love you all! DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	12. Chapter 12

_15 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

The cog door spun out of the way, and Jack walked in, carrying Ianto. "Gwen," he called.

Gwen rushed over. "Jack! How is he?"

"The same," Jack told her. "He never woke up. The sedative is very strong. Quickly, we need to bring him down to the vaults."

Ianto, or the thing possessing Ianto, started stiffening and shaking as Jack brought him deeper into the Hub. Fear gripped Jack. What if he had calculated incorrectly? But he forced himself to keep walking all the way down to the vaults with Gwen tailing him, hovering.

Jack had set it up so that the nearest unoccupied cell would flood with the contained energy once he entered a code in the Vortex Manipulator.

"Gwen, open the door for me," he said. Gwen did so quickly. "Wait for a minute."

Jack set Ianto gently down onto the hard floor. He was starting to slowly come to, shifting slightly with his eyelids twitching. Jack took a deep breath and pulled a small penknife out of his pocket. "I'm just going to make a tiny cut in his hand," Jack explained, not sure whether he was talking to Gwen, Ianto, or himself. "That way, the gaseous creature has a way to get out without causing Ianto to disintegrate."

He picked up Ianto's hand, which the creature weakly tried to pull away. However, it wasn't fully awake yet, so Jack seized the advantage to brace himself and swipe the knife across Ianto's palm. There was now a shallow cut that stretched for an inch and a half across his skin which dripped blood and let out a tiny puff of green smoke.

Jack stood up and started to walk out of the cell. A quiet mutter from behind him caused him to turn around again. "What did you say?" he asked the creature.

"I said…" the creature whispered. "You're wasting your time. This isn't going to work, Jack. You're going to kill him."

"It's the only chance I have," Jack spit.

"It won't work."

"You _would_ say that."

"Would it convince you if your Ianto confirmed what I was saying as truth?" the creature said smoothly.

"Don't pretend to know me," Jack told it icily. He turned away again.

"Jack! Jack, stop!"

Jack flinched. It was using Ianto's voice again, like it had before Jack had discovered it. _Not him,_ he told himself, trying to force himself to ignore it.

"Please, listen to me! It's telling the truth, Jack, you're going to kill me! Please, stop, don't do it! It really is me! Please, Jack!"

Ianto's pleas seemed to cause physical pain in Jack's heart. Hands clenched in fists, his stride broke, but he did not turn around.

"Don't walk away! Don't do this to me, Jack!"

Jack slammed the cell door behind him.

"Jack...please."

Gwen had tears in her eyes.

"It's just pretending, Gwen," Jack told her.

"But it sounds just like him."

"It isn't him. I know it isn't."

"It _is_!" Ianto begged. "Gwen, Jack, please. I don't want to die."

Jack deliberately didn't look at him. He pulled up the cover on the buttons of his Vortex Manipulator, the broken time travel device he kept on his wrist from his days in the Time Agency. He looked at Gwen. "Do not let me go back in until it's over," he ordered. "No matter what he says. Just _don't_."

Then he pressed a combination of buttons to activate the remote trigger on the device Gwen had built, and Ianto began to scream.

* * *

_Things got intense there! What do you think? Was the parasite letting Ianto talk? Was it telling the truth? We shall see, yes, we shall see. Actually, this chapter was fairly difficult to write, and a bit heart-wrenching. Though not as much as later chapters. Feels. Love you! DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	13. Chapter 13

_15 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

Jack turned around instinctively. The creature was still using Ianto's voice, and he was in agony. He writhed on the floor, thrashing around as the diluted but pure time energy filled the cell. Gwen grabbed Jack's arm. "Stay here," she reminded him, remembering his instruction, even though she, too, would have given almost anything to stop what appeared to be happening to their friend. "Jack, we've got to let it happen. Whatever happens."

"I know," Jack said, but then he pulled free of Gwen's hold.

"Jack!" she said warningly, but all he did was kneel down on the floor next to the door of the cell and press his hand on it.

"It shouldn't have to take much longer," whispered the captain, and again, he wasn't sure whether he was speaking to Gwen, Ianto, or trying to reassure himself. "It won't be much longer."

As he was speaking, the now all-too-familiar green smoke began to leak out from between the clenched fingers of Ianto's cut hand. As the gas slowly filled the cell, Ianto's struggles grew weaker and his scream faded to a hoarse whimper. Then, suddenly, the volume of the smoke stopped increasing, and it started getting fainter and fainter in shade until only the tiniest, pale overcast of green filled the air. Then with a faint glow, it disappeared completely.

Ianto gave a quiet gasp and went absolutely limp, his normally pale skin turned even paler, almost white.

Jack practically kicked the door open. Somehow, in a matter of seconds, he was inside the cell, cradling the young man desperately. "Ianto? Ianto!"

"Is he okay? Oh, God, please let him be okay!" Gwen capitulated.

There was a terrifying pause that seemed to last an eternity but in reality was probably only a few seconds. "He's still breathing!" Jack cried joyfully. Internally, he was almost crying with relief. _I don't have to lose him yet. Not yet. _"Hey…" he murmured, his voice soft and comforting. "Ianto, Ianto, are you in there? Come on, sweetheart, come on, answer me, love."

Gwen tiptoed away to give them some privacy. Jack must have been really, _really_ relieved to start using pet names, and she didn't want to intrude on this moment between the two of them.

"Ianto? Wake up, let me know you're okay. It's gone, you're safe now, we got rid of it. C'mon, I'm right here. Wake up."

Ianto took in a sudden, shuddering gasp. He struggled to sit up and pulled away from Jack.

"Hey, hey, slow down!" Jack said quickly. "Nope, I've gotcha, don't sit up." He tried to tug Ianto back so the young man was still lying in his arms, but Ianto seemed to be panicking. His eyes, though thankfully back their normal blue-grey, were wide and frightened, and he pushed Jack away, scrambling backwards. "Whoa, Ianto, Ianto, look at me, hey!"

Ianto's breathing was shallow and uneven as he pressed himself against one of the walls of the cell.

"Ianto, shh, look at me, it's me. It's just me. It's Jack, look." Jack moved so he was kneeling in front of Ianto, reaching out a hand to lay on his shoulder gently. "Calm down, you're safe."

"Jack?" Ianto choked.

"It's me. Just breathe, Ianto, it's okay. Slow down."

"I thought…" Ianto was trembling violently. "I was...But..."

"Ianto, calm down. Come here, come here, you're safe." He once again gently pulled Ianto towards him, and this time Ianto accepted Jack's embrace, shaking, pressing his face into Jack's shoulder. "Okay, okay, everything's fine," Jack reassured him. "Come on, I'm getting you out of the vaults," he added, helping Ianto up and supporting most of his weight.

Ianto stumbled along with Jack up to the main level of the Hub. Jack called up to Gwen before they reached the top. "Gwen, Ianto's going to be fine. Can you go home and let us be alone for a little while? We'll call if we need you."

"Of course," Gwen called back. "I understand." The sound of the door opening could be heard, and they barely came over the top of the steps in time to see the door rolling closed.

"Come on, you need to sleep the sedative off a bit more," Jack murmured, and led Ianto to his office.

* * *

_Aww, look. It's just my OTP and some h/c. What could go wrong? Some fluffiness next chapter to make up for all of the awfulness I'm putting them through. Hope you like it! DFTBA, love you!_

_~Clare_


	14. Chapter 14

_15 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

"What was it like?" Jack inquired gently. Ianto was curled up on the little bed in the back of Jack's office, the captain sitting on the edge, stroking the back of his hand up and down Ianto's arm. "Having that creature possess you, I mean. It might help a little to talk about it."

"Terrifying," Ianto murmured in response. "I couldn't control anything. And I wanted to warn you, but I couldn't. I'm so sorry, Jack."

"Oh, hey, why are you sorry?" Jack said, confused.

Ianto let out something dangerously close to a sob. Jack sighed. The sedative they had used sometimes had an effect on emotions for hours after it wore off, especially on creatures with complex minds like humans. It had to be fairly blunt and harsh and strong to be effective on nearly every species in the universe. "Ohhhhkay," Jack soothed. "What's wrong?"

Ianto shook with another sob and didn't say anything. Jack sighed again. He gazed at his lover sadly. "None of it was your fault, not a single bit."

"If I hadn't been there, you wouldn't have protected us and you wouldn't have died, if I'd been able to get away before it got inside me I would have been able to go back and warn you about them. And now I'm just bloody useless!" Ianto finished.

"Ianto...go to sleep. Please, you'll feel better when you wake up, I promise," the immortal captain said softly. "I'll turn the lights off, okay? Tell you what, I'm tired, too, I'll sleep too, okay?"

"Don't turn the lights off all the way," Ianto begged.

Jack smiled. "Of course not. I'll come right back, don't worry." He stood up to go turn off the lights, and left only one, dim golden light on, emanating from a small old lamp in the corner. He strode quietly back over to the bed, tugging his coat off the desk chair as he did so. In the dim light, he saw that Ianto was still curled up into a tight ball with his knees almost tucked to his chest, in the corner of the bed with his face towards the wall. "Relax, you're fine," Jack told him as he sat down on the edge of the bed again, draping the grey greatcoat over the young man. Ianto clutched at it.

"Can I really go to sleep, Jack?" Ianto asked.

Jack started rubbing his back slowly. "Absolutely."

"But it's only three in the afternoon," Ianto added.

"Ianto, I wouldn't care if it was ten in the morning. Go to sleep, sweetheart." Jack smiled fondly at him.

"But-" Ianto started.

"Shhhh," Jack shushed. He lay down next to Ianto. "For the hundredth time, go to sleep. You really need it."

"Sorry," said Ianto again.

Jack held him close, making him un-clench his muscles. "It's fine."

Ianto buried his face in Jack's coat, which was now being used as a blanket and Jack had partially pulled over himself, too. "My mind's being all strange," Ianto said, muffled. "I can't think straight and I'm frightened, Jack, and I don't even know of what."

"It's just the sedative we had to use to keep the creature from doing anything," Jack explained quietly. "You'll be fine when you wake up. Sleep for as long as you want."

"That sounds good." Ianto let out a long, fluttery breath and snuggled closer to Jack.

Jack hummed something softly, and Ianto's breathing got slower and more even as he fell asleep.

"It wasn't me," Ianto said suddenly.

"What do you mean?"

"Talking back there. Before you started...whatever it was you did. It was the thing, using my voice."  
"I know," the captain answered.

"No, you didn't."

Jack conceded, "All right, I wasn't positive. But that isn't important right now. Go. To. Sleep."

"Yes, sir," Ianto murmured back, and Jack smiled to hear the slight teasing note that stole through his voice. He was asleep.

Then, Jack's cell phone rang.

"We've got a problem."

* * *

_Eep! Things went from calm and sweet and aww Janto to...well. You're gonna have to find out. Thanks for reading! Love you! _

_~Clare_


	15. Chapter 15

_15 November 2008_

_Cardiff, Wales_

Jack groaned. Of course they did. When did they not have a problem? Why couldn't they _ever_ just have a minute to recover from the last one? "What is it, Gwen?" he snapped, though taking care to keep his voice down so as not to wake up Ianto.

"Don't talk to me like that, it isn't my fault, Jack Harkness!"

"Sorry. I know it's not. It's just…I really don't want to leave Ianto right now."

Gwen's voice softened. "I'm sorry, but I need help. Please, Jack, time's gone wrong. I think it's the creature, the last one, who was in the body of the redheaded young man."

Jack slipped his arm out from underneath Ianto, standing up carefully. "What's happened?"

"The Rift's let night in."

Jack scrunched up his forehead. "Huh?"

"It's _nighttime_, Jack. It's three in the afternoon and the skies just suddenly went dark, the stars are out, and so is the moon. Jack, it's nighttime, and people are panicking." Gwen was desperate.

"I'm coming. Try to calm them down, get the police involved if you have to." Jack was about to grab his coat from the back of his chair, but remembered that it was on top of Ianto right now. He turned back to the young man, fast asleep, one hand clutching at the collar of the coat like a toddler with their favorite blanket. He decided just to leave the coat there.

"You never tell me to get the police involved!" Gwen exclaimed, shocked.

"Well, we're a little understaffed right now." The captain was pressing his phone to his ear with his shoulder, searching through a desk drawer for a pen and a pad of paper. He found them and began to scribble a quick note down.

_Ianto: _

_Gwen and I had to go take care of something. Don't worry about it, and I'll probably be back before you wake up anyway. If not, I'm sorry, I know I should be with you, but I don't really have much of a choice right now. Everything's going to be fine. STAY HERE. _

_~Jack _

"Jack, I'm going to hang up and call Andy, okay? I'll tell him...oh, I don't know. But I'm sure I can think of something to say. _Hurry._" _Click. _Gwen had hung up. Jack taped the note to the back of his chair so Ianto would see it when he woke up, and ran out.

It _was_ night. Gwen had been absolutely right. "What the…" Jack started, looking up. Not only was the sky dark and full of stars, swirls of gray, glowing material kept flickering in and out of sight, hovering about twenty meters in the air. It _felt_ wrong. Just looking at them made his head hurt. He tore his eyes away, and felt a little better, but a nagging sensation remained. Something dawned on him. He'd been living near the Rift for so long...and something was wrong with it. And he knew what it was.

Gwen was standing a little ways away, talking on her phone and waving one of her hand energetically. "No, Andy! Oh, I don't know...Think of SOMETHING and...No, I can't tell you that. Just tell everyone to get inside and to STAY there! Erm, turn all the power off...YES, to everything...And yeah, I know most people are already inside, that's cos they're scared…" She looked up and spotted Jack. "Andy, I've got to go."

Jack jogged up to her. "Give me the phone," he demanded, and didn't even wait for her to hand it to him. "Andy, right? Look, don't turn the power off to everything, that would make everyone panic even more. Just cut off power to the heaters and air conditioners if you can. Anything that allows for the flow of air. Got that?"

PC Andy Davidson sounded utterly bewildered. "Who's this, then?"

"Jack Harkness, we've met, remember? Just do what I said. We'll sort it out, but I need you to do this for us. Tell everyone to stay inside, lock themselves and their families in a small room with sealed windows, and shove towels or blankets underneath the door. They'll be safe that way. Don't ask why." Jack didn't wait for a confirmation of understanding before hanging up and handing the phone back to Gwen.

"What was that about the airflow?" asked Gwen.

"I think I may have figured out some of what's going on," Jack told her. "What I don't know is how to stop it."

"Bloody fat lot of good that does!"

"Using the Rift Manipulator might just make it worse," Jack continued as if she had not spoken. "We need to find the creature. Now. I might be able to track it with…" His voice trailed off, and he let out a growl of frustration.

"What?"

"My Vortex Manipulator, but that wouldn't work. Any disturbances in time, and that includes activating anything on even a broken time-travel device, will just plunge us into an even deeper pit of doom."

"Poetic," Gwen muttered dryly. "So what do we do?"

Jack's eyes lit up. "Actually, that's it!"

"Jack, _explain_!" begged Gwen. She hated it when Jack did this, figured everything out and then kept it from them.

"Back to the Hub, quickly! I'll explain there." He dashed off (again!) with Gwen following.

* * *

_Stuff's happening again! Eek! Well, thanks for stickin' with me. Love you all! DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	16. Chapter 16

_15 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

Jack and Gwen sat in the Hub. Waiting. Jack had explained what he'd figured out, and how they were going to try to deal with it. The former policewoman had shook her head in amazement. "Will it work?"

"It better," Jack said grimly. "Otherwise, everyone's dead."

"And now we wait for it to come?"

"We wait," Jack confirmed. "We just wait."

There was silence for a few minutes. "How long?" Gwen asked.

"As long as it takes. But if you don't mind, I'm going to go check on Ianto."

"Go ahead."

Jack stood up, preparing to go to his office. But then, someone walked through the open door.

"Is this supposed to be a trap?" an icy, inhuman voice quipped. The redheaded man who had the creature inside of him walked straight in.

"No," Jack said, turning towards him. "It's a rescue."

The intruder looked momentarily confused. "Who are you rescuing?"

Jack looked right into his eyes, but he wasn't looking at the creature. "You," he said, clearly and directly. Then Gwen shot the prepared sedative, right into the man's neck. He fell. Jack ran over to him. "Quickly, help me get him down to the vaults," Jack requested, lifting him up. He weighed less than Ianto, despite being roughly the same height, so he wasn't hard to lift, so Gwen went ahead to hold doors open for Jack.

Jack placed him down onto the floor of the same cell that Ianto had been in earlier. He pulled out the penknife, cutting the man's palm quickly. Then he backed out of the cell and closed the door. He lifted his wrist to press the buttons on the Vortex Manipulator, but then stopped. His eyes closed. "Sh**."

Gwen's eyes widened. "Oh. You can't use that, can you?"

"Not without causing exactly the kind of time disturbance that it was trying to cause already," Jack muttered. "Sh**."

"What're we going to do?"

Jack looked at her. "You aren't going to do anything. You're going to stay right there. I can trigger it without the remote system I set up using this-" He displayed the wrist strap. "But only if I'm inside there with it."

"Oh, okay," Gwen realized. "But that's alright, yeah? It won't hurt you, it didn't hurt Ianto, just the creature inside him, right?"

Jack grimaced and shook his head. "The creature inside of Ianto acted as a semiconductor of the time energy, channeling it through itself without allowing it to harm Ianto, but that won't happen for me. All of it will go right into me. It'll probably kill me, Gwen." He groaned. "I just did that last night, why does it always have to happen all at once?" But he resigned himself and pulled off his wrist strap. "Hold this, I don't want the time energy messing with it," he told Gwen.

She looked at him with blatant pity in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely.

"I'm gonna be fine," Jack reassured her. "I'll be alright!" he added when she looked unsure.

"And I'll be right here," she told him. "I know it's not the same as when Ianto's there when you come back, but I'll be right here."

Jack gave her a grateful, if slightly embarrassed, look. "Thanks. Oh," he added, "and when the gas is all gone, press those two buttons." He pointed at the buttons on the wrist strap. "It'll be fine then to use it, and that'll keep him safe. See you in a minute or couple hours. Not sure how long this'll take for me." Then he opened the door and walked in, closing it carefully after him. He reached up towards the machine on the ceiling, having to stand on his toes to reach it. The immortal captain braced himself, and pressed the button.

Immediately, he let out a pained cry, wrapping his arms around his ribs and slowly dropping to his knees. Groaning, he fell over onto his side, bringing his knees up to his chest. "Ahhhh, ahh, ahhhhhh," he whimpered. He appeared to be struggling to breathe. The green smoke began to float out of the redhead's limp hand, and Jack's eyes widened with panic. "Gwen...I...have to...let go...before...it...finds me…" he gasped.

Gwen knew what he was saying. If he didn't die now, the creature would find Jack, a much stronger body, to whom it could hold onto long enough to press another button and turn off the flow of time energy. "It's okay, it's okay," she tried. "You can let go, Jack, me or Ianto'll be there when you wake up."

His face distorted with pain, Jack nodded, and stopped breathing. He went limp. The green gas swirled angrily around him and the other man, before fading into nothingness. Gwen slammed her hand instantly down onto the buttons Jack had directed her to, and the machine's tiny, barely audible humming disappeared. Gwen hadn't even realized it was making a noise until it ceased, and everything was quiet. Far too quiet. She opened the door quickly, going straight to Jack.

No matter how many times it happened, Gwen would never get used to seeing Jack die. She thought she should probably move him and the other man to somewhere more comfortable, but she didn't think she could carry either of them. So she just sat.

* * *

_It got intense again! (Or I hope it did. That was the desired effect.) If you're enjoying, please do review! They brighten my monotonous (more points to you if you know which of my stories that word has huge meaning in! If you don't, and you like this story, feel free to check out some of my other fics. See if you can find Monotony!) days so very very much. Love you all! DFTBA!_


	17. Chapter 17

_16 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

Gwen gave a start. The redheaded man was stirring. They must have given him a much smaller dose of sedative than they had Ianto. "Hello, hey, are you okay?" she asked him, reaching out and placing a tentative hand on his arm.

"Midde…" he whispered.

"Sorry, love, didn't catch that," Gwen apologized.

He opened his eyes. "Where's Midde?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know who that is."

"He…What happened? I…"

Gwen helped him sit up. "Easy, love. It's alright. What's your name?"

"Flicker," he responded instantly. He rubbed his eyes with his fists, like a child waking up from a nap. Then he winced. "Ouch," he muttered, glancing at his palm and inspecting the cut there.

"Hello, Flicker, I'm Gwen."

"Nice to meet you. What happened, please? Where am I?" Then he caught sight of Jack, still lying dead, and gasped. "Who's that? Oh, God, is he dead?"

Gwen tried to calm him down. "Easy, there. That's Jack, he's going to be okay, I promise. Everything's going to be fine."

"What happened?" Flicker repeated.

"What do you remember?"

Flicker thought. His breathing started to speed up. "No. No. No, it can't be."

"What?"

"Midde! No, no! _He shot him_!" Flicker cried, pointing at Jack.

Gwen winced as she realized. Midde must have been the man Jack had shot in the woods, the one also possessed by one of the creatures. "I can explain."

Flicker scrambled to his feet. "Get away from me!" He had tears welling up in his bright blue eyes.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," repeated the former police woman. "I'm so sorry, he had no other choice."

"You _always_ have a choice! Midde!" Flicker began to sob.

Suddenly, Jack gasped, sitting up sharply. Flicker cried out in shock. Gwen was kneeling between them, and she had no idea what to do, so she turned to Jack. "Jack, shh, it's okay, it's me," she said. Jack's eyes fell on her, and he relaxed slightly. Then he looked up and saw the shocked, grief-stricken face of Flicker.

"Hey," he said to Flicker. "How're you doing?" But Flicker just stared.

"Jack," Gwen warned, and leaned forward to whisper into Jack's ear. "You know the man in the woods you shot? I think Flicker…" she gestured at him so Jack knew who she was talking about, "loved him. And he remembers."

Jack closed his eyes. "Help me up," he murmured, pain and remorse dripping from his voice. Gwen took his hands and pulled him up. Jack grabbed the wall for support. "Okay," he said, to let Gwen know he could hold himself up now. She let go of him and took a step back. Whatever was going to happen, it was going to happen between these two men, and she didn't want to be in the way.

It didn't take long for something to happen. "You KILLED HIM!" Flicker shouted angrily, once he had gotten over his shock at seeing Jack come back to life. He flung himself at Jack, hitting him, with tightly closed fists. Jack didn't stop him, and Flicker continued to attack him, sobbing, until he couldn't stand.

Then, Jack caught him as he sank to the ground because the weight of his sorrow was too much. "I'm _so sorry_," the captain whispered. "I am _so sorry_."

Still pounding Jack's chest weakly, Flicker didn't even acknowledge him. Jack pulled him close, and Flicker kept sobbing. Gwen wasn't sure, but she thought she saw tears in Jack's eyes, too. "So sorry. So sorry," Jack kept saying, over and over, as if the amount of remorse he held couldn't be expressed by saying it just once, or twice, or three times.

"_So sorry_."

* * *

_Oh no. Emotions. FEELS. And more to come...mostly involving Janto...so. I had way too much fun with this story. Everyone gets whumped a bit, physically and emotionally. And by fun, I mean I almost made myself cry. Not with this chapter, though it did make me sad. No, the peak of the feels is still to come. Hope you're enjoying it! Love you! DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	18. Chapter 18

_16 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

Flicker was sitting on the worn old couch in the corner of the main rom in the Hub, wrapped in a blanket, holding a mug of tea. Jack was sitting in a chair across from him, explaining.

"The creatures possessing you and your team, were, for lack of a better word, parasites," Jack told him. "Parasites that feed off time energy gone wrong. And, I'm sorry, but your mission was full of it. You had no idea what you were doing...and the creatures were waiting in the Rift for something to fall through wrong, for something to manipulate it wrong. They attached themselves to each of you. One to you, one to...Selenite?" Flicker nodded. "One to Lakia, and one to...one to Midde."

A fresh tear slipped down Flicker's face. Jack pretended not to notice. "Lakia must have died in the explosion," Flicker murmured. "I think that's when the parasites decided to take your friend, so they could have another host."

"That seems right," Jack confirmed. "And we didn't realize it when we got Ianto back, that he was its host. Well, we figured it out when it couldn't enter the Hub because of the time energy that was too pure. It was poisoning it."

"So you set up that machine that would kill the creature without killing your friend," Flicker added for Jack.

Jack nodded. "Yeah. And then you...your parasite," he corrected himself quickly. "Tried to do what it had originally set out to do, which was to find hosts to come through the Rift with, and then flood the atmosphere of whatever planet they landed on with dirty time energy and open up the Rift so all of their kind could come through. The one creature on its own didn't have enough power to do that, so after it tried and failed to open the Rift completely, it had to find another alternative. Its kind was trapped, struggling, halfway in our world and halfway in the Rift still, causing grey ghosts to fill the air. But the parasite needed some way to open the Rift completely, so we lured it here. You know the rest; by killing the parasite inside of you, the partially opened Rift had to close because it didn't have anything holding it open. And the rest of the parasites are trapped."

Flicker nodded slowly, and sipped at his tea. "So you saved the world."

Jack smiled gently. "It's what we do."

"But you didn't save Midde. Or Selenite. Or Lakia," Flicker added bitterly.

"No," Jack whispered, his face falling. "No, we didn't."

"Jack?" came a tentative voice, and Jack looked up to see Ianto slowly making his way towards them.

Forgetting about Flicker for a moment, Jack stood up and practically ran to Ianto. "Ianto!" He flung his arms around his lover, who responded by tugging Jack's coat, which he had carried with him, over the captain's shoulders. Jack let go of Ianto just long enough to put his arms through the sleeves, then tried to pull Ianto back in for a longer embrace, but Ianto pushed him away and straightened his collar.

"You didn't move the note," Ianto reprimanded.

Jack winced. "Sorry, I forgot..."

"It's fine, but I called you and you had left your mobile in your office," Ianto scolded. "You do realize that that won't do you any good, not with you? I was worried."

"And I told you to stay there," Jack countered.

"I decided to call Gwen, who explained everything that happened." Ianto glanced over at Flicker, who was watching their exchange contemplatingly. Ianto walked over to him. "Hello," he greeted. "I'm Ianto, Ianto Jones. It's nice to meet you, even under the circumstances. I'm sorry about your loss."

Flicker stood up to shake Ianto's hand. "Thanks. It must be awful," he added, "loving someone like that." He gestured at Jack, who looked offended and almost worried for a second before Flicker continued. "Having to watch them die over and over again."

If Ianto was surprised that Flicker's perception had picked up the relationship between him and the captain, he didn't show it. "It is," he agreed, "but at least I know he'll always come back to me. It's much worse for him. And much worse for you."

Flicker didn't try to argue with that. "So, what are you going to do with me?" he asked, trying and failing to sound cheerful.

"What do you want us to do?" Jack interjected. "This is the year 2008. Do you want to stay, try and make a living here? Your ship is gone, and, sorry, but it never worked well anyway. We haven't got any real time travel devices of our own, bit against our rules. The most we can do is to try and direct you through the Rift to somewhere else."

"I don't want to stay," Flicker answered immediately. "Could you send me home? I'm from the year 2996."

"2996?" Jack repeated, shocked. "That's so early. Then you must be-"

"We were the first. The very first. Or, that we knew of. There might've been others but we never heard about them."

Ianto felt a jolt of surprise. "You were the very first time travellers?"

Flicker nodded. "So could you send me home?"

"We've no real control over it," Ianto admitted.

"So you don't know where I'd end up?" checked Flicker. Jack shook his head. "Maybe not, th-" the time traveler began. Then he cut himself off. "Can you feel it?"

Jack frowned, but Ianto's eyes widened. "Jack? Can't you feel it?" he echoed.

Jack was starting to get a little freaked out. "No, what is it? Ianto, what is it?" he repeated as Ianto stared straight ahead, his eyes unfocused. Flicker had the same expression on his face. "Ianto!"

Ianto's blankness broke for a second and he gave Jack a panicked look, reaching instinctively for the captain's hand and squeezing tight. "It's _coming_," he cried. Jack met his gaze, trying to appear calm.

"What's coming, Ianto? Talk to me," directed Jack, but Ianto had blanked out again. He was still grasping Jack's hand, but his hold was growing weaker until it was completely limp.

This was getting worrying.

* * *

_"Wake up, Dustfinger! Come back! The story isn't over yet!" _

_Even more points if you know what book that's from. What are these points for...I suppose I should probably figure that out. Maybe you get a request of a story if you've given me a review for each chapter that contains the correct answer. What do you think? Yes? No? Probably no. But I'm willing if you are. Thanks for reading! This story is just a roller coaster, isn't it? _

_~Clare_


	19. Chapter 19

_16 November 2008: Nearly Midnight_

_Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

The night had come early, and the sky was cracking open. Cardiff was already in a state of panic, since the sun had disappeared at three in the afternoon, and the entire rest of the world said that the day had passed perfectly normally for them, and yes, it was already the sixteenth, and why was Cardiff in such a fuss? However, the people of Cardiff were all doing what the police had told them to do, which was to lock themselves into a small room and seal it off as much as they could. But those with windows in the room could see outside, and there was a great schism opening up in the sky.

It was filled with green ghosts and swirls, flowing closer to Earth and then rocketing back as if frightened or hurt by something. But then it would cautiously start coming down again...and it was coming closer and closer with each ebb and flow, like the tide coming it. It moved as if in a single entity, as if it were one conscious, living being. Behind the translucent mass shone millions and millions of stars.

* * *

_Baby chapter! Yay! This_ was_ fun to write. Hope you like reading as much as I liked writing! Please tell me what you thought, reviews are love. And I LOVE YOU ALL! DFTBA!_

_~Clare_


	20. Chapter 20

_17 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

As one, Ianto and Flicker began to tremble, their eyes sightless. They dropped to their knees in unison. Still holding on to Ianto's hand, Jack knelt down, too, unwilling to release contact. "Ianto! Come back, come back, look at me, talk to me, Ianto."

But the young man was unresponsive. Jack loosened his grip on Ianto's hand and it slipped from his grasp. It fell limply onto Ianto's thigh. Jack stood up again. He _had_ to figure out what was going on.

Suddenly, a slight whispering sound snagged at his subconscious. He looked up. The green smoke was seeping down through the high ceiling of the Hub interior. A sudden fear stole through Jack. The whispering intensified, getting louder and louder. Jack could almost make out words through the hiss. The noise came quite obviously from the green, gaseous substance, but not from one single point. Jack wasn't even quite sure it was audible and not a form of telepathy.

Either way, it was coming closer and it was getting louder. Jack leaned down, placing an arm around Ianto and pulling him closer to Flicker so he could stand in front of both of them at the same time, so he could try and protect both of them.

The whispering was clear now. "_I shall return to my host. I shall return to my host."_

"I?" Jack asked, bewildered. "You're one creature now, are you?"

"_The parts of me you killed are gone, but I am strong and I am powerful. You cannot hope to contain me." _

Jack tried to keep the thing talking. Flicker and Ianto were both still out of it behind him. Evidently, being possessed by the parasite before created an adverse effect when in close proximity to the creature, or maybe there was still a tiny wisp of the creature still inside both of them that the creature could still control, or…

_Stop thinking_, Jack told himself. "So. Well. You want a new host, is that it?"

"_I want to feed. I am so hungry. And I can sense a meal to be had. A spacetime event so fixed and so powerful that to change it would last me eternity." _

"Oh, yeah, and what would that be?" Jack responded lightly.

The smoke swirled a little closer to him. "_Something which contains eternity within itself." _

"Which is _what_?" Jack demanded.

There was a slight pause in which the smoke grew still, like the calm of an ocean before a tsunami. "_Your life." _

Jack laughed. He couldn't help himself. "You think you can change the eternity of my life to feed off the disturbance in time it causes? You do know that I'm a fixed point, right? I've been told that by the best. The expert in time. The Lord of Time, you might say. So if you think you have the strength to break a fixed point…" Jack spread his arms invitingly. His eyes flashed with a sudden darkness. "Go ahead. You go _right on ahead_. I think you'll find I won't put up too much resistance."

With a whirl of green too quick for Jack's eyes to follow, it darted past him in a condensed mass of smoke and disappeared. Shocked, Jack spun around to look at the two men he had been protecting.

For the second time, Ianto's eyes glowed green as they stared up at Jack. The creature spoke through Ianto's lips with its own voice.

"_Time to die, Captain Jack Harkness. Time to die for eternity."_

* * *

_Well...dang. Stuff's gettin' serious over here. Hope you're enjoying! I love you! _

_~Clare_


	21. Chapter 21

_17 November 2008_

_Underneath Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

Flicker heard the exchange between the parasite and Jack as if from a long, long distance. He dimly understood what they were saying, but it wasn't until the creature had disappeared inside of Ianto that he came back to his senses with a gasp.

Ianto, or the parasite, stood up swiftly. "_How much life, I wonder? Is it truly infinite?" _He, it, shot out one hand and touched it to Jack's forehead. A glowing stream of white light flowed out of Jack's forehead into its finger. The light was, though Flicker didn't know it, pure time energy. It came straight from the heart of the most complicated time machine in the universe-so complicated, in fact, that she had surpassed the level of a machine and was a living, organic creature.

And it was beautiful. Flicker couldn't do anything but stare for a moment. Murmuring voices echoed out from the golden-white glow, the voice of a young girl and of a man, but he could not decipher any of the words they said.

Jack's eyes seemed alight with the same glow. He was not crying out, trying to pull away, or seeming to be in any pain. But he was fading. Not the light-it remained as bright as ever. But something inside Jack, something that seemed as endless as the ocean, nay the universe, nay _time itself_, was slowly, ever-so-slowly growing dimmer.

The captain sank slowly to the ground. With a jolt, Flicker realized that he was dying, and jerked himself completely out of his reverie. He scrambled upright, and knew exactly what he had to do.

He dashed off, downwards, racking his mind for the route he barely remembered. But his memory was stronger than he gave himself credit for, and he found himself in the vaults. He dashed past several strange, frightening looking creatures before he found the cell with the machine inside it.

He examined the device. It was designed to keep its flow of energy within the one small cell. That would be a problem. "Lucky for you, I'm good with tech," he muttered, addressing the two men upstairs who he knew could not hear him. "Right, let's see what we've got inside here."

Flicker's fingers moved swiftly over the wires connecting the bits of the device. "And if you're the one who keeps that in place there, all I have to do is put you there instead, no, there, and then it'll allow for the radius of the energy to be…" He did some quick calculations in his head. "No, that's too far. There instead. That's perfect." He placed the machine onto the floor.

He knew what was about to happen. He knew that he could save Jack and Ianto. Jack had his buffer of infinite life, and Ianto had the parasite inside of him. Both of them should be fine. But Flicker also knew that this was a death sentence for himself. He still did not hesitate. "For Lakia, for Selenite. And for Midde." He pressed the button.

Upstairs, the connection between Jack and the parasite faltered for an instant. Jack collapsed in a heap without breath or heartbeat. And the green smoke started puffing out of Ianto's skin. Without even needing a cut to escape through, though there was a concentration of smoke around the hand that had been cut earlier, it swirled into the air. Ianto, too, fell to the ground without a sound.

Down in the vaults, the machine sputtered weakly. It was too much for the little piece of technology assembled in haste by someone who didn't know exactly what they were doing. It would break soon; that was inevitable. Flicker only hoped it would do what it needed to do before shorting out.

And it did. The parasite's color faded away into nothingness. So did Flicker.

* * *

_What do you think? I grew a little bit fond of Flicker, mostly because in my mind, he's developed a whole lot more than what you see in this story. This man's got a history. But since people aren't usually warm and fuzzy towards excessive OCness, I decided not to put a lot of it in here. _

_Thank you for reading! Please, please review with what you think of the story. Just warning you; there is only one more chapter left. And it gets pretty emotional. I doubt it's going to make anyone cry, because I'm definitely not that good. But it is pretty sad. Love you all! Thanks for sticking with me this far, I'm impressed. _

_~Clare_


	22. Chapter 22

_17 November 2008_

_Cardiff Square, Cardiff, Wales_

Gwen had barely made it home, kicked off her shoes, kissed Rhys, and said, "I'm so sorry I haven't been home, but you could probably tell, there was some mad stuff going on at work," before the sky split apart and Cardiff erupted into panic again.

"Oh, sh**." She looked at Rhys apologetically. "I'm sorry, love…"

Rhys understood, even if he wasn't too happy about it. "Go on then. Go save the world for us, eh?"

She smiled at him, put her shoes back on, and rushed out the door.

On her way back to the Hub, the Rift closed again, to Gwen's great relief. But she had no idea what had come through it. She had never seen it so wide before, so visible. And there had been more of the green smoke, too.

Gwen dashed into the Hub. "Jack? Ianto? Flicker? What ha-" Her voice faltered.

Ianto was kneeling next to Jack, who was quite obviously dead. His eyes were open. They just looked so wrong without the sparkle of life behind them. Gwen came closer cautiously. There were tears running down Ianto's face.

"Ianto, hey," Gwen said gently. Ianto looked up at her desperately.

"He won't wake up!" he cried, his words half-strangled by a suppressed sob.

Gwen dropped down next to them. "Ianto, he's going to be alright, you know him. He'll always come back, haven't we figured this out already?"

Ianto shook his head emphatically, willing Gwen to understand. "No! It's different this time." His held-back sob broke loose. Gwen grabbed his shoulder.

"Ianto, look at me, love. How is it different?"

Fighting back tears, Jack's body lying between them, Ianto brokenly explained to Gwen what happened. She was filled with dread. "So…that means…" She could barely bring herself to say it. "He might actually be gone this time."

Ianto nodded. His face crumpled again as he glanced down at Jack and ran two fingers down Jack's eyelids, closing them.

Now Gwen was fighting back tears. She wasn't going to let herself cry. She had less right to cry than Ianto. She had to stay calm for him, keep reassuring him that Jack would come back, because that was her job, wasn't it? Neither she nor Ianto was ready to accept Jack being gone. Without saying another word, they silently agreed to stay there with him until he woke up. As long as that took. They weren't going to leave.

After several hours, Gwen couldn't keep her eyes open. She hadn't slept since being knocked unconscious by the explosion. That was almost two days ago, she realized. So she sank down to the floor, lying next to Jack. Ianto remained sitting as Gwen fell asleep.

The young man placed his hand on Jack's cheek. It was cold as ice, but Ianto kept stroking his face anyway, trying to communicate somehow, to get him back. But Jack did not wake.

Sometime, Ianto must have fallen asleep like Gwen. He awoke a few hours later with his head on Jack's chest and his hand on the captain's hair. Now Gwen was sitting up, watching them sadly. Ianto just looked at her.

"I know," she whispered.

"We're waiting," Ianto insisted softly. "We're waiting for him."

Gwen wasn't in any way disagreeing. "Absolutely. Forever."

Jack looked younger when he was dead. With a pang, Ianto whispered, "It wasn't going to be like this."

"I know, sweetheart."

"It's selfish of me," he went on. "But I'm supposed to be the one who dies."

Gwen had a lump in her throat. She shook her head wordlessly, and a tear slipped out of her right eye.

"Jack would rather it this way, though." Ianto looked up at her. "But I wouldn't. Does that mean I don't love him enough?"

Ianto sounded so lost, so confused. It was Gwen's turn to let out a sob. She couldn't stay strong for him anymore. Not when he was saying things like that. "No, Ianto," she told him. "That's not what it means."

"Are you sure?" he asked bitterly. "I hold on to people when they don't want to be held on to. When I should just let them go."

"What ar-"

"Lisa," he stated. One word. That was all it took for Gwen to let out another sob. Of course, she shouldn't even have had to have asked. Ianto looked back down at Jack's face. He seemed to accept something, and something in his eyes changed. He leaned down, for the first time not minding that Gwen was there, and kissed Jack on the lips.

Gwen's mind flashed back to a year and a half ago, the last time they had believed Jack to be dead for good. She had been the one who insisted they wait that time. Hadn't it been a kiss that had brought him back in time, before the others had insisted he be frozen, in time to live?

Ianto sat up. There were tears in his eyes again, but he didn't let them fall. "Gwen," he began, but at that very moment, Jack let out a gasp that was almost a scream, sitting up sharply.

Gwen and Ianto stared. After a second or two, Jack caught his breath and looked around at both of them, their faces tearstained and shocked. "Hey, guys," Jack said. "Why the long faces?" He was trying to sound happy, cheerful.

"Captain Jack Harkness," Ianto said calmly.

"That's me."

"_Never_, ever do that again," Gwen joined in.

Ianto shook his head. "No...Come _here_." He pulled Jack towards him, wrapping him in a tight embrace and kissing him passionately.

The captain leaned into the kiss readily, heedless of Gwen, who raised her eyebrows and sort of turned away. Unprecedentedly, Jack was the one to pull away first. "Why were you two so worried?" he wondered. "You didn't believe that the parasite could actually kill me, did you?"

Ianto didn't reply.

"Did you?" Jack pressed.

Gwen responded for Ianto. "We weren't sure," she told him reluctantly.

There was a long pause. "How long would you have waited?" asked Jack softly.

"Forever," Ianto replied immediately. The expression that flickered across Jack's face was almost a smile, but it was a sad smile. And something else, as well. Then it disappeared.

"What happened to Flicker?" he said abruptly.

Ianto hesitated. "After I woke up again, he had disappeared. I knew he had to have been the one to activate the device you made in the vaults, so I went down. He's dead, Jack. I put him in the morgue and then came back up to you."

Jack groaned. "All four of them gone. The first, or, well, first human time travellers. All dead. I suppose that makes sense; they never knew if any of the journeys had been successful. The first ones to actually return to their base was in the year 3845. But the radiation killed them before long, and they didn't perfect it until the 4700s. The Time Agency was established in 4890."

"Fascinating," Ianto remarked. Actually, it was quite interesting, but he didn't care right now. All he wanted to do was to wrap Jack up in another hug, or better yet...But he glanced over at Gwen, still pointedly looking away, and sort of blushed. Jack noticed, and smirked. Ianto rolled his eyes, and Jack winked. Almost imperceptibly, Ianto winked back.

Gwen actually was watching them out of the corner of her eye, and she almost laughed at their little wordless exchange. Was this what they did in those quiet little moment around the Hub, even when Tosh and Owen had been alive? Just talk with tiny facial expressions and eye flicks? "Oh...get a room," she muttered to them. Jack laughed. Surprisingly, so did Ianto.

She stood up, spreading her arms in a gesture of defeat. "Honestly, you two. Two minutes ago, Ianto and I were sobbing over your dead body, and now you're flirting."

"Something wrong with that?" quipped Jack.

"Oh, no, not at all. I don't have to stay for it, though, do I?"

"Not unless you want to…" offered Jack, his voice tight with amusement.

Gwen coughed. "No, thank you." But before she left, she leaned down and kissed the top of Jack's head. "I'm glad you're alive," she whispered to him.

She left. But for Jack and Ianto, the day had only begun...

… … … … …

_...THE END..._

* * *

_I had to leave it off on a slightly happier/lighter note. I really hope you enjoyed this not-so-little story that took a heck of a lot of work to write. Let me know what you thought! DFTBA! And your final set of "points": What does DFTBA stand for? Thanks ever so much for reading to the end! _

_~Clare_

_P.S. For my next multi-chaptered story, I was thinking of doing a Ten and Rose adventure. What do you think? Is there another Doctor+Companion(s) I should write instead? I already have one with 10 and Donna and one with 11, Amy, and Rory, so I don't think I'm going to repeat those. But eventually I want to do a Nine+Rose+Jack, though I don't know if I want to do that now or save it. Or I could try to write 12, though I've never really done that before. It could be interesting. Anyway, until the time comes that I have the next longer story ready to start getting published, I have a one-shot already done that has a (possibly overused) plot of the 11th Doctor (post Angels Take Manhattan, pre-Clara) meeting post Children of Earth-Jack. It will be published in the Doctor Who category because I don't really consider it a cross-over even though it mentions happenings in Torchwood. It is the same world, after all. Or would you guys rather I write another Torchwood multi-chapter adventure? Seriously, I would love some input. Please, please review. _

_P.P.S. And if you also read my SPN stuff, All We Are will have another chapter soon. I swear, my writers' block is mostly gone. And I only have 3 more chapters to write, and I know what's going to happen in one of them. Thanks for sticking with me, and I absolutely love you all! _


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